What shall we do tonight?

Is it just me or has the quality of television programmes gone downhill?   I don't care for Soaps so watch none of them.  I quite like some of the Antiques programmes although many of them are repeats.   Breakfast television I enjoy as it keeps me up to date with the News.   I never watch serials which involve Murders - I live alone and I don't watch anything which might keep me awake after I have gone to bed - or cause me to have scary dreams.  Now and again there will be something really interesting - like a recent series called 'Villages by the Sea' which told about things other than fishing which took place there - like Alum mining at Staithess in North Yorkshire (I have been many times to Staithes but never knew about it) but by and large there are many nights when there is nothing I wish to see (apart from BBC4 every Saturday when they are showing 'pruned' versions of all the old Michael Palin travel series - so far 'Pole to Pole', 'Around the World in 80 Days', and now, starting this evening the first part of another of his wonderful travel series from years ago.   And there are also wonderful wildlife programmes with incredible photography.  But so much of what is on is 'rubbish', what I call fill in programmes.

I sat here this morning thinking what did we do before TV?

In our village every Tuesday night was 'Threepenny Hop' night, when all us young ones went to the Village Hall and danced to records played on an old Radiogram (remember those?)  controlled by the Vicar. ( Remember The Palais Glide?).And every Friday night there was a Whist Drive which was always packed out and had good prizes.   As a teenager I used to go sometimes with my mother.   Once I won first prize and chose an embroidered tablecloth rather than a joint of sirloin of beef given by the local butcher,   I don't think my mother really ever forgave me for that.  She was a fanatical whist player and had had her eye on that beef all night.

There were three pubs in the village - The Royal Oak, The Ferry Boat and The Hunter's Leap.   The Royal Oak had good darts facilities and the Hunter's Leap had a billiards table which you could book.   My father, brother and brother in law had a permanent booking for three hours each Friday night.

In addition there was the radio to listen to (I can even remember when we had an old valve radio) and I recall the old favourites - ITMA, Henry Hall's Guest Night and the (often very scary 'Saturday Night Theatre) and of course 'Dick Barton - Special Agent' (remember that?)

When I first married the farmer some of the old traditions still remained up here - one being the Domino Drives.   They were especially popular around Christmas time when almost every village had one.   Refreshments were provided in the interval.   The farmer was a dab hand at dominoes and I (an absolute novice at the game) used to go with him.   The most popular one around where we lived was at a village called Carlton in Coverdale - I think the main attraction was the home made mince pies in the interval (everyone got two on  a plate and it was pot luck - some of the ladies made beautiful mince  pies, some were pretty basic).

These days with all the games on computers and on mobile phone this must sound very old fashioned and out-of-date' but of course every dog has its day and no doubt in another eighty years things will have changed again (unless we have all been nuked out of existence).

But my domino-playing never really improved and at the Carlton drive one Christmas I without thinking completely blocked the game by making the line a five at each end with the last five available.   There was uproar from my 'partner' (you moved around so I had ended up playing with the champion domino player I didn't know.)   A few years ago I saw in the local paper that he had died.   I fully expect he remembered my faux-pas until the day he died.